cucumis

See also: Cucumis

Latin

Etymology 1

A wanderwort likely ultimately from Sumerian 𒄾 (ukuš₂, “cucumber”) or an unidentified pre-Indo-European Mediterranean substrate language; see Arabic قِثَّاء (qiṯṯāʔ, “snake melon”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈku.ku.mis/, [ˈkʊkʊmɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈku.ku.mis/, [ˈkuːkumis]

cucumis (1)

Noun

cucumis m (genitive cucumeris or cucumis); third declension

2. Armenian cucumber, snake melon, vegetable melon, Cucumis melo subsp. melo var. flexuosus
3. (Medieval Latin, New Latin) cucumber

Declension

Third-declension noun (imparisyllabic non-i-stem or i-stem, accusative singular in -im, ablative singular in -ī; two different stems).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cucumis	cucumerēs cucumēs
Genitive	cucumeris cucumis	cucumerum cucumium
Dative	cucumerī cucumī	cucumeribus cucumibus
Accusative	cucumerem cucumim	cucumerēs cucumēs cucumīs
Ablative	cucumere cucumī	cucumeribus cucumibus
Vocative	cucumis	cucumerēs cucumēs

Derived terms

• cucumerāceus
• cucumerārium
• cucumeriformis, cucumiformis

Descendants

• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: cocomero (“watermelon”)
• Padanian:
  • Emilian: cucümar, cucòmbar, cheumar, cumar, gombar
  • Friulian: cudumar
  • Gallo-Italic of Sicily: cocombar
  • Ligurian: chighéumou, chigèumori, cughéumai, chigèummo
  • Lombard: cucumer, cucumro; cocomber; chicumro (plural chicumbri)
  • Piedmontese: cucumer, cocom, cocomo, cocomber, chëcchëmmo, cocómber, cocòmer, cachëmo
  • Romansch: cucumer, cucumera
  • Venetian: cocomaro, cocomero, cugumero, cucùmaro
    • → Serbo-Croatian: kukumar
      • → Romanian: cucumăr
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Old French: cocombre
    • Middle French: coucombre
      • French: concombre
      • → Middle English: cucumer, cucumber, cucumbre, kykombre
        • English: cucumber
    • Norman: cocombre (Jersey)
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: cogombre; codombro (València and Tarragona); coombro (Tortosí)
  • Old Occitan: cocombre, cogombre
    • Occitan: cocombre, codombre, cogombre, colombre

      Gascon: cogom

• Ibero-Romance:
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: cogombro
    • Galician: cogombro
    • Portuguese: cogombro
  • Spanish: cohombro, cogombro
• Borrowings:
  • → Translingual: Cucumis
  • → Middle High German: cucumer
    • German: Kukumer f, formerly Cucumer m
      • → Slovene: kúmara, also kukumər and kukumra
    • Alemannic German: Gugummere, Guggummere
    • Bavarian: Gugumer
    • Palatine German: Kukumer, Kukummer, Gugummer, Gegummere, Gummere
    • South Hessian: Kummere, Gummere
  • → Welsh: cucumer

Etymology 2

Inflected form of cucuma (“kettle”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈku.ku.miːs/, [ˈkʊkʊmiːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈku.ku.mis/, [ˈkuːkumis]

Noun

cucumīs

1. dative/ablative plural of cucuma

References

• “cucumis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cucumis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cucumis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “ukuš”, in The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary‎^[1], University of Pennsylvania, 2006
• Janick, Jules, Paris, Harry S., Parrish, David C. (2007) “The Cucurbits of Mediterranean Antiquity: Identification of Taxa from Ancient Images and Descriptions”, in Annals of Botany‎^[2], volume 100, number 7, →DOI, pages 1441–1457